


Embittered Winter

by Eustacia Vye (eustaciavye)



Series: Only Death [5]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Gen, The Nine Realms, Yggdrasil - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-16
Updated: 2016-02-16
Packaged: 2018-05-21 01:52:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,997
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6033679
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eustaciavye/pseuds/Eustacia%20Vye
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There is a natural order to things in the universe, the way the wheels of fate and time turn, even on Yggdrasil. Hel wants to undo the natural order and come out on top, even as Helena tries to fix the damage that Selene had done, trying to prevent Ragnarok.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Embittered Winter

Thialen was a new Celestial; such beings hadn't been seen since the dawn of the universe and the first powers that created it. Helena didn't understand what she had done or the importance of it, but did know that his body resonated with the power of Thanos' gauntlet. She could pull at that power, could bring it to her side with only a thought. That was made even easier by proximity to Thialen, of thinking about how his body was shaped and felt, the way he had been while dead and cradled in her arms when she first brought him to life.

It was potential, the burning _everything_ of creation in a single fragment of moment, and she exploded it to bring Thialen to life.

Life was the antithesis to death, but the two states depended on each other. There was no death without life, and life couldn't persist without the death of other things. It was a dynamic equilibrium, a delicate balance Helena had no intention of disrupting. At the same time, she couldn't help but enjoy the idea of Thialen getting a chance to explore life, of learning all the things he hadn't been allowed to learn when Thanos had destroyed his home planet. He sat beside her during her lessons on magical theory and application, even though he had no aptitude of his own. His mind proved flexible and able to absorb the information just as easily as hers was, and Karnilla frowned at them. "Celestials can learn many things. Though you cannot cast spells, change the _spá_ or craft the _seidr,_ this doesn't mean you are ignorant to what's around you. Runes cannot be powered by you, but they can be used by you." She sniffed in impatience and disapproval. "I don't like nonpractitioners knowing of our craft."

Helena looked at her with large doe eyes. "But knowledge is important. All knowledge. He should know how to defend himself."

"Hel would want his heart as her supper," Karnilla confirmed sourly. "She already plans to murder you, little one."

To hear it stated so baldly was a little disconcerting. "Oh." Helena looked at Thialen's distressed expression and then shrugged at Karnilla. "I guess I'll just have to kill her first."

***

Hel left the web in the heart of the palace. It was a massive place most of the time, as it pleased her to make a suitable impression on the souls as they arrived. Dramatic, perhaps, but why not be? She was queen of the realm, after all. She could do whatever she damn well pleased.

Opening the door to the aviary, Hel looked at the murders of ravens circling beneath the top. "Hello, my darlings," she said, voice like the whistling of a cold wind.

The stones around her shifted, opening up an entire wall. Behind it laid a lake of shimmering blood beneath a shadowy black cloud, and the blood lapped at a shore of black ash and grit. There was a rancid stench arising from the blood lake, and the raven murders flew from the aviary to circle the lake instead. One cawed, then the rest did in tandem. At the sound, Hel stepped forward, onto the shoreline. It was firm enough to withstand the pressure of her body on it, not even making a dent; she cast no shadow here and left no footprints in the ash because she didn't wish to.

Her skin began to blacken, flake, and peel as she walked. The long black hair she usually prized fell loose from their complicated braids. The comb and pins came loose, fell to the ash in a tarnished tangle of metal that soon crumbled to dust. Jewels crumbled, fell apart in clouds of dust as well, adding to the ashy piles. The dress she wore fell into tatters with each step, fragments falling off of the rags and crumbling into ash. Her hair shriveled and curled in on itself as if exposed to high heat, then fell from her scalp entirely. As the scorched hair struck the ash, it too fell into dust.

Blackened, crackling skin peeled off her body as she walked, the flesh stripping off of her bones with each step. Everything that hit the ash crumbled into black dust.

When she reached the lake, she was nothing more than a walking skeleton. The murders of ravens cawed again, a harsh sound, before they all moved in concert to swoop back through the hole in the wall and into the aviary.

That left Hel alone at the edge of the glittering blood lake.

As Hel stepped onto the blood lake, blood poured out of each of her bones in a cascade. It was seemingly endless, each sparkling drop forming rivers of weeping blood, adding to the glittering lake beneath her bony feet.

When the river stopped flowing, Hel was in the very center of the lake. The bleached bone skeleton fell apart and then sank into the blood below.

Deep below the surface of the glittering blood lake lay a single rod of cut crystal, runes etched into its every surface. The glyphs spiraled, ran into each other, shifted and became new ones; it was impossible to read them due to the speed of their motion.

"Hello, dear one," Hel's skull told the Runestaff. "I have come to you, flesh and bone, ash and shadow, instead of by proxy or through a web of dead seers."

The Runestaff gave a pulse of welcome.

"I have been a wraith, dear one. All of death and nothingness and cold, misery incarnate. I am everything and nothing. I am finite and infinite."

The Runestaff gave a pulse of agreement.

"I don't know how to be anything else."

Another pulse of agreement.

"I will destroy myself and be destroyed."

A third agreement.

"Will I survive?" Hel asked, voice timid for the first time in her entire existence.

There was a long pause, uncomfortable and tension filled. The Runestaff finally revealed its ignorance in the matter, and the reluctance to answer.

"I need to hunt down the Helena," Hel told the Runestaff. "I need to kill her."

Disapproval was thick in the glittering blood; Hel knew it was because she was proposing to upset the natural order of the realm. Death had to proceed as scheduled, had to follow the rules that were set down. Otherwise, the fragile balance in Yggdrasil would be upset.

"She hides my realm from me!"

The disapproval didn't ebb. If anything, it seemed to deepen.

Hel's bones swirled together in a maelstrom of thick blood, coalescing back into her skeleton. Tendons and ligaments and muscle fibers grafted themselves back onto the bones, just enough for her to reach out and touch the Runestaff directly.

The moment she did, it sent out a pulse of energy, knocking her back and away from it.

"You've never denied me before," Hel snarled at it. Without flesh to pull away from the jaw and teeth, the ferocity wasn't quite there.

Disapproval was thick around her, and the Runestaff glowed bright white. It would have blinded her if the eye sockets had been filled with flesh. That reminded Hel of Helena's light spell, the simple globe of blinding white light, the joy in her eyes as she took in the creation. What would Helena do if she saw the Runestaff? What would she do if she knew Hel was intent on killing her instead of letting the usual order proceed?

Hel was forcibly ejected from the blood lake. She was thrown into the aviary, the murders of ravens all sitting silently on their perches, beady eyes watching her carefully. She sat up from her sprawled position, seeing that her body had formed itself as soon as she left the lake, and her hair was long and loose and black. Clothing hadn't been formed as well as her flesh, but turning her head let her see that the wall was back in place without a seam.

The Runestaff was quite displeased with her attempt to manipulate it.

As she stood, a dress as dark as raven's wings flowed down from her shoulders, spinning down into a full skirted A line gown. Flashes of red thread shot through the weave in the skirt, the same glittering red as her cascading blood had been. High heeled Victorian styled lace up boots fashioned themselves around her feet, and her hair began to braid itself. The jewels she had worn to the aviary were lost, but one of the ravens flew down with a circlet of plain gold with a single large opal that would be centered in her forehead. The raven deposited the circlet as the last of her braids was looped into place, and fine netting extended up from her shoulders and chest to her throat, ending in an elaborately embroidered collar.

"I thank you, my darlings," Hel told them as the lone raven flew back up to its perch. "Keep guard for me. I'll keep the spiders from falling into the aviary."

The raven that had given her the circlet cawed in response, a weary approval she couldn't help but hear. The ravens were tired of the duty, but their souls had been captured millennia ago by a prior Hel and were bound into the service for eternity. There would be no release for them until Ragnarok came to wipe the realm clean.

She would prevent that from ever happening. She wasn't giving up her realm for _anyone._

Without help from the Runestaff, she would have to do this the old fashioned way and actually investigate her realm. Leaving the aviary, she headed for the map room. The doors opened as she approached them, and the maps inside shifted and flew through the air. A glittering mural on the wall of Yggdrasil mocked her; Helheim was at the bottom, of course, and the other eight realms extended upward until she lost sight of Asgard and the higher realms. Extending and then pulling her arm back toward her body, a parchment the size of a grand dining table came toward Hel. It unrolled itself and then laid flat at waist height, as if it had been placed on a viewing lectern in the center of the map room.

Helheim was constantly changing, depending on the needs of its inhabitants. The castle was in the very center of it, guarded by her gargoyles. They had been there for centuries, of course, and alerted her when souls approached her gates seeking audience with her. She could look through their eyes and make sure that the parchment map had updated itself as it should have, but she could feel the freshness of the material when she touched it.

"Show me my realm," she ordered the map, flicking its surface with her finger.

It shimmered, and some of the lines shifted as the towns and rivers ebbed or flowed, showing the flux in the density of souls. Hel's eyes skimmed over the entire document, looking for any flaw, any oddities she couldn't explain.

There were five suspiciously blank spots. Hel's eyes narrowed and she reached out over the map, flicking her fingers wide. The closest blank area magnified to take up the space of the entire parchment map, and it remained blank. The same thing happened when she switched to the other four blank spots on her map.

Significant magic was in play, blocking her ability to see her realm and the souls in it.

Fury rose within her, white hot and impossibly sharp. It had to be Helena's fault.

She had to die _now,_ before she learned anything else of significance. Hel would have to develop the magic on her own, then, rather than simply absorbing the talent fully formed. What a bother, but it would keep her from being bored for the next millennia or so. Possibly. Maybe. It had become harder and harder to keep herself amused. She was even thinking of seeking out Yelena Belova or Natasha Romanoff, then pitting them against each other. The new version of Ophelia Sarkissian would likely succumb to such tactics, and it would be quite the show on Midgard to amuse herself with.

Nails grown long into sharp, hooked talons, Hel shredded the map in front of her and then stalked out of the room.

Hel had been denied what she wanted for far too long.

***

"Come at me, then," Thialen challenged Helena, holding his sword. She had a long staff of rowan and ebony in her hands; the last time they had tried swordfighting, Helena had turned her sword into molten silver by accident, burning her hands and Thialen's arm. Both had healed quickly, especially with liberal applications of the _limrunar,_ but neither wanted to repeat the exercise.

Helena grinned, eyes alight with joy. The two of them were closely watched by Väinämöinen, Karnilla, Alaric the Visigoth, and Vercingetorix. The latter two had been amused by Väinämöinen's grumblings about the failings of his students' physical training, and accompanied him to further sessions. Vercingetorix suggested a contest between the two, and to bind the space that they trained in so that Helena couldn't be spied on. "For safety. No point in giving away all of your secrets to the enemy, after all." He crossed his arms over his beefy chest and took in the sparkling smile on Helena's face. "This is no game, girl."

"Oh, I know. I have to kill her so she won't kill me. But I have a legendary warrior to train me! I am bound to learn such things!"

That mollified him, and Karnilla was the one to bind their training locations so that no scrying spells or objects could pierce her veil. 

"If there was a way to simply put the skill into your mind," Alaric growled when Helena faltered on a step that he was trying to teach her. "I would gladly do so!"

She looked at him with wide eyes. "There is, but I don't know if you would retain the skills yourself," she admitted.

"What do you mean?" Alaric demanded.

"Silence," Vercingetorix snarled at Alaric. Upon their deaths, the two warriors often competed to see who was the better warrior. It was part of the reason why they were teaching Helena; the better warrior was bound to be the better teacher, and was another aspect of their competition.

"Hold," Alaric returned, holding up a hand to forestall him. "Explain."

"I can take out souls. Or skills." Helena tapped her temple. "Then they live here. But I don't know if they remain inside you, too."

Karnilla was pale, even for a shade. "That is... unexpected." She exchanged a glance with Väinämöinen, who seemed a little disconcerted. "You've done this before."

Helena tapped her temple again. "I have a cooper, some of the memories of the gargoyles, and my grandmother Helaine."

Thialen huffed and clasped his sword anxiously. "That's not comforting news, Helena."

"It isn't?" she asked, turning to face him. It wasn't affectation; she had no idea why that would disturb the others. "It helped me learn. Hel wants to kill me, after all, and that disturbs the proper order of things on Helheim. For all I know, that's what helps to trigger Ragnarok."

"There is a great serpent that eats at the roots of the World Tree," Karnilla said in heavy tones, clasping her hands together. "When all the roots are gone, and the snake eats its own tail, the pain of it sends a shockwave through the rest of Yggdrasil. The shaking untethers the Nine Realms, and then begins the great unraveling of each world."

"Because of the Runestaves?" Helena asked, tilting her head to the side. "But some were absorbed already, all but destroyed by Selene. She was a World Eater, of those realms tied to Yggdrasil as well as those off of it. I don't understand how the unbalancing of magic would happen now."

Karnilla conjured an ornate chair and sat down heavily on it, stunned. "Oh dear."

"What?" Helena asked. "I don't understand."

Väinämöinen looked from Karnilla to Helena. "The tales can be allegory. Prophecy is never very precise, after all. I fear that this Selene you speak of might be the great serpent of the tales, as the roots of Yggdrasil are magic, after all. The Runestaves are the anchors of magic in each world, tying them to Yggdrasil."

"Oh." Helena smiled brightly. "I'm made up of her heart and other magic. Can I put the magic back into those Runestaves, then? Would that save Yggdrasil from unraveling and dying?"

Stunned, Karnilla gaped at Helena, speechless for the first time in her unlife.

Alaric grunted. "Such a mission sounds dangerous. Anything that precious would be heavily guarded and surrounded by such traps that it would be impassible to mortals."

"Oh, but I'm not mortal," Helena replied brightly, smiling at him. "And neither is Thialen, really. He's something in between. I think. He feels different now," she said, smiling encouragingly at her friend. "So you can come with me!"

"If it's dangerous, I don't think our skills are up to it," he replied nervously.

"Then take our skill," Vercingetorix said gruffly, stepping forward. "If it wipes me clean, so be it. A part of my soul will live on to do great things."

Not to be outdone, Alaric stepped forward as well. "My skills are more valuable, my lady."

Helena giggled. "Oh, boys, I will miss you when we journey elsewhere."

Both warriors looked affronted, but didn't have time to reply before she dropped her staff and grasped their hands. Her body began to glow, blinding white, and there was a crackling sound around them, like static.

And just like that, Helena _knew things._

The two warriors staggered backward when she let go, and Vercingetorix actually stumbled and dropped to his knees. Helena didn't notice, having turned to grasp Thialen's arm. The crackling sound came again, the static leaping through her hand into him. Not expecting it, his eyes went so wide that they were entirely white, his mouth gaping wide in a silent scream.

"I know where Selene had gone," she told Thialen, eagerly smiling at him and leaning in close. Her eyes glittered. "She had entirely absorbed the magicks of Jotunheim, Svartalfheim, and Muspelheim. She tapped into Midgard, but didn't entirely drain the Runestaff there. So which realm would you like to visit first?"

Thialen shrugged. "I don't think it really matters, do you?"

"No, probably not." She turned around to face the four teachers behind them. "Where do you—Do you feel okay?" she asked the warriors in concern, finally noticing their discomfort.

Alaric stood regally. "But of course. It was simply a surprise that you would do such a thing so quickly. But I am not nearly so faint of heart as my associate here." Vercingertorix scowled at him as he stood at attention, which made Alaric force a grin to his face.

"You can still fight?"

"And strategize," Alaric promised.

"Oh, good," Helena replied, grinning like a child presented with a new toy. "It worked just the way I wanted it to." She let go of Thialen's arm. "So you know what they do."

Karnilla actually looked almost ill. "Helena, you should probably go as quickly as possible." She put a hand on her abdomen, queasy expression on her face. "Slip between the branches of Yggdrasil and stay out of sight. I cannot tell what will happen if you don't."

"I can," she said solemnly, smile sliding off her face. "Hel will absorb my magic, consume my heart, and scatter my body for Helheim to devour."

 _Run, Helena,_ Helaine urged, her voice an insistent howl. _She comes!_

Ripping the world apart next to her, Helena grabbed Thialen's hand and stepped sideways into the snowy wastes of Jotunheim.

Not even a minute after the fissure closed behind them, Hel ripped down the wards Karnilla had painstakingly set up, eyes blazing with fury.

 _"Where is she?!"_ Hel roared, her voice like the crashing of a tidal wave.

"Gone," Karnilla replied, standing to her full height, chin lifted. "You will not find her here."

Hel reached forward, arm distorting across the space between them, and then her body was just as suddenly _right there,_ her fist inside of Karnilla's chest. She twisted her hand sharply, making Karnilla gasp and buckle, Hel's arm the only thing holding her upright. Hel lifted her other hand imperiously, freezing the other three souls in place.

"Did you really think you could go against my wishes?" Hel hissed.

"Did you really think you could defy the laws of nature?" Karnilla replied, pain causing her voice to be a hoarse rasp. She pulled her lips back in a gory parody of a smile, blood smeared across her teeth. "We all felt the recoil in this realm. We all knew what it meant." She swallowed the blood bubbling up her throat with difficulty. "You seek to overturn the laws that govern this realm to your own end. That will not come to pass. It will not be tolerated."

Displeased, Hel yanked her arm out of Karnilla's chest, the bloody heart still enclosed in it. The old witch gasped, then collapsed to the ground. Her coloring faded to a lackluster gray, and the substance of her soul faded until it was nothing more than mist.

Only then did Hel lower her other arm, and she pushed Karnilla's heart to her own chest. The substance of it was absorbed into her body, her dress soaking up the thickened blood.

"All of you belong to me," Hel said, power in her voice. "And I will do as I will."

The warriors couldn't run, and Väinämöinen didn't even have time to scream.

***

Jotunheim had been devastated by the war with Asgard, the loss of the Casket of Ancient Winters, and then the destruction of vast tracts of land from Loki's assault with the Bifrost. It had been previously weakened by the loss of the Runestaff's magic when Selene had sucked it dry to feed her appetites, though none but the Jotnar shamans knew of such things. The loss of magic had also weakened them, causing them to die in droves. The remaining people, already wary of magic and all that it could be, didn't seem to miss the loss of the Runestaff's magic. They couldn't miss what they didn't know or understand, after all. But the world knew, and the realm was weak and decaying without the Casket of Ancient Winters to provide the realm with a few threads of magic to sustain it. The decay was slow, and would have taken millennia if left to its own devices. Using the Bifrost to destroy it, however, had accelerated the damage.

Helena and Thialen arrived in a frosted desert, a plain of snow and ice. The beasts of Jotunheim were built to sustain themselves in cold weather, with thick armored scales or leathery skin over layers of blubber to insulate their interior organs from the bitter cold. The flightless birds often huddled for warmth in the cave systems that the frost giants didn't inhabit. Frost giants were immune to the effects of cold, and were hardly the only form of giant on Jotunheim. They were simply the most numerous and well known; many of the other races had been slaughtered in greater numbers during the war with Asgard. Mountain giants had nearly been obliterated, storm giants had always been few in number, and brine giants clung to the remnants of the sea. The land giants, cannibalistic and ever hungry, had been completely obliterated. The shadow giants that had magic had been the first to die when Selene siphoned off the Runestaff's power, so they had all but died out by the time the war started. 

The larger caverns held different clans of frost giants, and the royal family had Utgardhall, a large palace constructed of ice and stone. Since the war and loss of the Casket, however, it had fallen into disrepair. Much of it was uninhabitable now, with open ruins serving as meeting halls or the throne room.

Deep within the bowels of the palace was the Well of Crimson Waters. Legend on Jotunheim was that it had been created from the blood spilled from the Asgardians that died in the war between the two realms. Following Laufey's death on Asgard, the truth about the Well's location was lost; his two sons Byleistr and Helbindi hadn't known the secret, and were too busy warring between themselves as to who held greater claim for rule. Rule wasn't determined by age but by might, and each brother held a faction of the remaining warriors.

The warring tribes didn't notice when Helena and Thialen walked into the ruins of Utgardhall, winding their way through the fallen stones and shards of ice. Helena's hold on Thialen made him insubstantial, but he was far more confident than he had been when she brought him to Sokovia to view the Avengers and Hydra at work. Neither really knew where to go, exactly, but Helena felt the pull of the Well and the Runestaff within it.

She let go of Thialen when they reached the Well. It was a pool of blood in the deepest recess of the palace, hidden behind complicated traps and blinds; if they hadn't been insubstantial, Helena and Thialen would have had to destroy the palace to get to the Well.

"Just in case," she warned him, "keep guard. I don't really know what I'm doing."

Thialen actually laughed and stood at the ready with the sword Alaric had given him. "Neither do I, Helena. But making it up as we go along has worked out pretty well so far."

Grinning, Helena walked into the Well and promptly sank.

Blood was everywhere, all she knew and felt. It got into her eyes and nose and mouth, into her ears and coated her with its sticky substance. The Well was special, the lifeblood of magic and life on Jotunheim. The physical aspect of the Runestaff remained in place, which kept it from clotting and turning solid in the millennia since Selene had depleted it of its magic. Without that magic, though, there was no buoyancy, and Helena was as substantial as a stone.

But that meant she fell in line with the Runestaff, which looked like no more than a copper rod with runes etched into its surface. There was no glow, no spark of life, no sense that it held anything inside of it at all.

Wrapping her hands around it, Helena _pushed_ part of herself into it, the part that felt as though it belonged there, much as she had done with Thialen. The rod seemed to heat up in her hands as she did so, but she ignored the sensation. It felt like an unraveling, something curling and unfolding in her chest, a tendril snaking out of her black heart and through her hands to touch the Jotunheim Runestaff. The Runestaff, empty and aching, eagerly caught hold of that tendril and _pulled,_ drawing it inside itself.

Once the thread was completely absorbed, the Runestaff gave off a pulse. Helena felt welcomed, thanked, appreciated.

And then she was back at the surface of the Well, standing beside Thialen. She wasn't even covered in blood, though she could taste the rottenness on her tongue, the aftereffect of diving deep into the diseased and dead Well before she had brought it back to life.

"That was... easy," Thialen commented, looking at her. "I feel almost cheated."

Helena laughed and looped her arm through his. "Me, too, actually. So... Which realm next? Muspelheim? It has fire."

"After all this cold? That'll be a welcome change," Thialen agreed.

Slashing reality with her hand, Helena opened a portal to Muspelheim, which was little more than an ember of a world. Clouds of ash rose with each step, and the faint glow in the ground and stark hills cast everything with an eerie red light. "Not fun," Thialen murmured.

"Nope. I wonder if I can find the Runestaff here. It was drained before Jotunheim's was."

"Look for something imposing," Thialen said, looking around. There were hills and mountains of ash and burnt stone, and the flowing lava had long since cooled. The fire pits were empty, nothing but embers, now the graveyard for the fire demons that were long dead. "The ones that lived here before had to live in _something."_

Drawn to a crumbling spike in the middle of an empty plain, Helena led the way. It was a spire of blackened stone, edges flaking away when the sharp winds blew past. The ground had once been flowing lava, and now appeared like large, twisted rolls and ribbons. Thialen followed her without complaint, eyes darting everywhere.

"Can you imagine?" Helena asked in a hushed tone. "A being of fire, living in a realm of fire, watching everything around you slowly cool down... You would know you're dying, but not why, and you'd be helpless to stop it."

"It would be horrible," Thialen replied.

"I don't know if bringing back the Runestaff here will bring them back."

"One problem at a time," Thialen advised. "Maybe they'll come back, too. Maybe other fire creatures will find this a good place to live."

Helena smiled gratefully at him. "I like how that sounds."

The crumbling spire towered above them, no visible form of entry into it. "This had to have been a lake of fire," Thialen said, looking around. "I mean, this is solid now, but it almost looks like it was flowing, like it was moving. And if the fire was tall enough on top of that..."

"That spire would stick up out of it, and it would be almost impossible for anyone else to reach."

"Exactly."

Though there was nothing left alive in the entire realm, Helena felt better with Thialen phasing through the stone with her, staying at her side as they entered a small cavern. It was perfectly spherical, without any light source. Helena lifted her hands and made a small glowing sphere, the light spell that Karnilla had taught her first. It was a meditation and a test as well as a potentially useful spell if she was ever in dark places. This cavern, with no light or air, definitely counted as a dark place.

Lying carelessly at the bottom of the cavern was an obsidian staff, runes carved into it.

"Hurry," Thialen murmured, reaching out to touch the side of the cavern. He was barely able to hold himself up. "I don't feel good."

Thialen was mostly alive, Helena recalled. He needed air, even if she didn't.

Picking up the staff, Helena tried to _push_ the magic in her chest that felt as though it belonged on this realm. It had felt rather slow on Jotunheim, and she didn't have the luxury of time right now. She _pushed_ fast and hard, shoving the magic into the Runestaff in a hurried, sloppy mess. But this Runestaff was just as greedy for its familiar magic as the Jotunheim Runestaff had been, and it eagerly absorbed it all.

Just as Thialen collapsed, the Runestaff flew up out of her hands, floating in the center of the spherical cavern. It was aglow with a bright red that would have seared her senses, and its magic presence threw them both out of the cavern and onto the plain of solidified lava.

Helena knelt beside Thialen, calling his name in panic, touching him and trying to feel his spark of life. It was there, small and hidden, curled up deep to preserve himself, much in the manner of a hibernating Eternal.

"You can't be dead," Helena cried, feeling the world shake and rumble beneath her. Hauling him up into her lap, she rocked him tenderly. "I brought you back to life. You're an Eternal. They can't die from something like this. They _can't."_

A glimmer of magic uncurled inside of Helena and flowed through her hands into Thialen's chest. He took a deep breath, eyes opening, just as he had when she had first met him. After a few gasps of air, he smiled at Helena. "Are you going to bring me back from the dead all the time, then?"

Her laugh was a stuttering hiccup, and she threw her arms around him and buried her face in the crook of his neck. The rumbling beneath them grew louder, the shaking more insistent. "You're my friend. Of course I want you alive, Thialen. You can't die. We still have so many adventures left together."

There was a loud cracking sound behind them, and Thialen looked over her shoulder to find its source. He sighed. "Then our next adventure should be getting off this realm. It's about to get very hot around here."

She raised her head and looked in that direction. The ground was cracking, and the glow of heating stone was beginning to build. "Oh. I think I turned the heat back on."

"And we're not fire demons."

Helena let go of Thialen long enough to slash open a fissure in reality, leading to one of the caverns beneath Svartalfheim. Wrapping her arms back around Thialen, she pulled him backward through the fissure before a burst of lava could erupt from beneath them. The two tumbled into the cavern as the fissure closed.

Svartalfheim had once been heavily wooded, with the dark elves living in villages and castles aboveground, or in the large cavern system belowground. Much of the realm had been obliterated when Malekith had tried to use the Aether and was stopped by Bor. Only a small portion of the realm was able to bounce back from the damage, but that was not where Helena wanted to go. She knew she had to go deeper into the cavern system, into the darkness, a floating globe of light beside her to light the way.

"Something doesn't feel right," Thialen said, looking around uneasily. "Not because there are still people living on this realm," he clarified before Helena could ask what he meant. "It was like that on Jotunheim, too. I don't know why, but it feels like we're walking into a trap."

Nodding, she looked to the light spell. "Then we'll go fast, get this done and get out of here."

"We don't have to do this now," he replied, frowning. "You aren't tired out?"

Stopping to think about it, she slowly shook her head. "No, actually. You're right, replacing the magic of two Runestaves should leave me knocked out. But I feel no different than when we started. Like I only spit in the waters of the Well or struck a match on Muspelheim. Traveling between realms should be harder to do. But I did it like it was nothing."

"Should we be worried about this?"

"I'm not going to worry about it until I have to," Helena said, grasping his hand. "But if you don't feel right about this, we'll hurry it up."

They ran through the caverns, the globe of light hovering just five feet ahead of them and providing ample light in the pitch darkness. They came to a stop when the tunnels ended in a round room that looked rather like the cavern within the spire on Muspelheim, only there was a small hole in the bottom. "Looks like an oubliette," Thialen murmured.

"I'll go in."

"Helena..." he began in a warning tone, discomfited.

"No other way in but down," she reminded him.

"This doesn't feel right. The other places didn't have something like this."

"Maybe because of how the dark elves behaved?"

Thialen glowered at her. "Don't be willfully stupid, Helena. You passed along warrior training, which means you have it, too. _Think._ It feels almost like someone was ready for us here, waiting for us to show up."

Frowning at his words, Helena stepped closer to the oubliette opening and dropped a light spell down into it. At first it flared brighter, but then its magic fizzled and died. The bright flare was just enough to make out the jagged spikes lining the entire shaft, which would have shredded her to pieces if she dropped down without thought the way she would have done.

Looking up at Thialen, Helena gulped. "You were right."

"I wish I wasn't," he murmured softly. "Because then where is it?"

"It's here somewhere. Hiding."

"Magic?"

"When _isn't_ it?" Helena asked, shrugging. "I know it's here, but not how to unmask it."

"Maybe you can't think in purely magical terms," Thialen suggested, looking around. He finally bent over and scooped dirt from the cavern floor in his hands, and tossed it around the area. He ignored Helena's incredulous look, and then grinned in triumph when the dirt pinged off of something invisible suspended above the oubliette.

"Tricky dark elves," Helena said with a laugh. "All right, then. The oubliette is obviously to trap whoever is silly enough to go down without looking—" She held up a hand at his pointed look and rolled her eyes. "—or who know it's up there and just try to jump up."

"Think you can do a spell to make yourself hover up there?"

"Yes, but if I'm trying to push magic into the staff, I might lose the hover spell and then crash down into the oubliette."

"How did the magic get sucked out of this thing in the first place?" Thialen asked, eyeing the opening of the oubliette.

"Selene healed physical damage. The only thing that really hurt her was magic and metaphysical damage, so those spikes wouldn't bother her too much."

"Huh. And you're made from her flesh, you said. Maybe that's why this isn't tiring you out?"

 _Hurry,_ Helaine whispered in the back of her mind. _Time is running out._

"Could be," Helena told Thialen, a hopeful note in her voice. "But I'm not exactly the same, either. So do you think I could stay on your shoulders to touch it?"

He might have snickered, but Helena ignored it and pulled at the skirt of the dress she was wearing. It was rather Hel-like in style, with a sweeping maxi skirt embroidered with protection spells and runes, the bodice tight and heavily decorated. Pulling at the skirt, she hiked it up over her knees and then pulled the back of the skirt through to the front and pinned it in place with some of her elaborate hair pins. "You need to wear pants," Thialen suggested. "Easier to fight in, too," he added as he boosted her up to his shoulders.

"I'll keep it in mind," she promised, then reached out to touch the invisible Runestaff.

Immediately, Helena froze. The magic that had belonged to Svartalfheim easily got drawn back into the Runestaff, eager to return to its home. Helena didn't have to think about it at all or try to identify which threads of magic belonged where. At the same time, she realized that the influence of Jotunheim's magic and Muspelheim's magic still resonated deep within her. She had returned everything to those Runestaves, but they had allowed her to retain the skills and charms that would belong with its magical signature. Svartalfheim seemed to be working the same way, and allowed her to float suspended in midair, even after Thialen stumbled in surprise.

She slowly drifted back to the cavern floor, the Runestaff glowing white bright and visibly for a moment before fading back into invisibility.

"Time to go," Thialen said, holding his hand out. Helena noticed that his other was on the hilt of his sword, and his entire body thrummed with tense energy. He didn't trust this place, and his instincts told him to still be wary.

In the cavern they had arrived in, Helena saw why. Hel stood there, pale white skin stretched over her skeletal frame, her inky black hair coiled in thin braids around her head like a crown. Her dress was black and red, much like Helena's was, but its skirt moved and flowed as if it floated on a gentle breeze. That made the red runes in its weave shift and change, altering the shape of the spells they carried.

"Of all the places to hide from me," Hel said, lips curling in distaste, "dusty caverns below a mostly dead world would not have been my first choice."

"I've been restoring the empty Runestaves," Helena told Hel, lifting her chin a notch defiantly, as if daring her to be displeased.

Hel absolutely was. Her entire face contorted into a snarl of rage. "How dare you?" she cried, leaning forward, her hands hooked into claws. Suddenly those hands were at Helena's dress, nails sharp and gouging deeply into her flesh. Hel let go of one hand long enough to strike Thialen and send him flying across the canyon when he unsheathed his sword.

Helena could feel the way Hel was measuring her skills, the magic levels within her body. "You gave it all away!" Hel raged, shaking Helena and then throwing her to the floor. One booted foot connected with Helena's mouth, splitting her lip over her teeth. The blood that flowed there was bright red and tasted like broken dreams.

Reaching up, Helena caught Hel's ankle and wrenched it sharply. Hel fell to the floor, her head striking the stone. Helena clambered up on top of her, fingers sliding over the slippery silk of Hel's dress. The Queen of the Dead was about to lift her hands for a spell, so Helena reached out with her left hand while she let her right slip toward Hel's throat. She dug her fingers into the soft, dead flesh, squeezing and gritting her teeth tightly against the burning in her skin. Alaric's sword slammed into Helena's palm just as Hel _pushed_ up with her magic, a wave of power that sent Helena into the ceiling of the cavern.

The breath was knocked out of her, and her hands flew open. The sword clattered down to the ground, and she could see that a layer of skin had been ripped off of her right palm.

She was going to be absorbed if she wasn't careful. This was it. Hel was going to kill her.

Pinned in place, Helena could only watch as Hel gracefully floated back to her feet. There was a bloody mark across her throat in the shape of Helena's palm, but it was absorbed into the flesh even as she watched. "Poor little Helena. Too young, too little, too helpless." Hel smiled, her teeth looking like sharp fangs, needles against the dark hollow of her mouth. Even her eyes seemed to be empty vortices of darkness, as if she was a black hole clothed in the skin of a dead woman and dressed in finery.

 _On my mark,_ Helaine whispered in her mind, sounding desperate, _push down at her. It's a gamble, but if you overwhelm her at once..._

"Your mother says hello," Helena said as Helaine began to count down.

Hel glared at her. "That entity is gone, and has been for centuries."

"I know," she smiled.

_NOW!_

Helena kicked off of the ceiling and shot down with her arms extended forward. It felt like she was moving through something thick and soupy, not air, but her hands seemed to taper and thin, becoming more like knives. They collided with Hel's collarbones, and went right through her body. Helena's weight knocked Hel off balance, back down to the cavern floor. The pointed parts of her hands had enough momentum to drive down into the stone.

Both women were screaming, but Hel's were more pained than Helena's. For a moment, her heart constricted. Could she do this? Could she take apart the Queen of the Dead?

But then her lips drew back in a snarl, and her hands were like hooked claws as they tore into her torso. It felt like whips flaying into her, stripping the skin from her body, exposing the bone of her ribs. Hel was trying to get at her heart, trying to reclaim the black bit of muscle she had gotten from Selene. Once she had it, it would be easy enough to take apart the rest of Helena and reduce her to nothing more than runes and spell parts.

She wouldn't allow that. Not now, not ever.

They were connected by the sharp points of her hands, so it was easy for Helena to grasp hold of the weaving that made up Hel and her magic. It would be even easier to absorb her in her entirety, but her mind rebelled. No, that would leave Hel rolling around in her mind the way the cooper still did at times. She couldn't imagine living with that kind of hatred and enmity in her mind for the rest of eternity. It would drive her insane, and then Helheim would surely suffer as she self destructed. Maybe that was how she brought about Ragnarok in the old prophecies the bound seers had told Hel about.

Instead, she dug through the threads that made up Hel's soul and magic. She ripped through them indiscriminately, quickly, discarding what she didn't want to see. There was the magic, there were the skills, there was the determination and the knowledge to keep Helheim afloat. Helena seized hold of that and yanked hard, pulling them into herself. Everything else, she let it fall away, until there was nothing left.

Hel had been screaming as Helena worked, but her concentration had blotted out the sound of it. She hadn't even tracked Thialen getting up, staggering over to them and calling out her name in a panic. She didn't hear him take up the sword, didn't see its tip poised at Hel's forehead. She was caught up in ripping and shredding and weaving, carefully knitting herself back together; if even a single stitch flew free or slipped loose, her entire sense of self could come crumbling down, and then Hel could resurface as herself.

At last, Hel lay still on the ground, eyes unseeing. Sound came back to her, and she could hear Thialen's frenzied questions, the worry he had for her safety. He knew better than to interrupt a spell in progress, but he was frightened it.

Her eyes fluttered shut when she finished, and her hands shortened and returned to their usual shape. She fell to the side, but Thialen caught her and helped her to her feet. Helena's gut roiled, as if she had eaten something that didn't quite agree with her, but couldn't quite figure out if it should stay down or come back up.

"I'm here," Thialen murmured, holding her close. "You're okay, aren't you?" he asked.

How could she answer what she didn't even know the answer to?

Taking a deep breath, Helena slowly opened her eyes and looked down at the empty husk in front of her. All of the magic and knowledge Hel had was now resting in her mind. Helaine was strangely quiet, possibly because Helena didn't need her help anymore. Helena was now technically the Hel, the Queen of Helheim. The former Hel should be absorbed into Helheim to become part of the realm, or absorbed into Hel herself.

The very thought made her sick.

She looked down at Hel, then up at Thialen. "Please pick her up."

"But you—"

"I can't touch her," Helena said, her voice sounding odd to her own ears. She didn't know how she knew, but if she touched Hel, the former queen's substance would fuse and be combined with hers. There would be no getting rid of Hel, then.

Instead, as Thialen picked up Hel's empty body, she summoned Thanos' Infinity Gauntlet to her, twisting it through time and space. It appeared before her, hovering at chin level, carrying three stones in it, and Helena could find the rest if she so chose.

Encasing the gauntlet in a bubble of protective magic, Helena pushed it at her chest. Her flesh became intangible just long enough for the bubble to pass into her, safely hidden among her nonfunctioning organs. Her torso then solidified, and she looked at the lifeless and still Hel. Destroying the body still left the chance of inadvertent contamination, and she wanted _none_ of Hel in the realm. The queen had been too destructive, too selfish, and far too cruel. Helena had no wish to have any of those traits put into her, potentially corrupting the creature that she had become. She liked herself as she was.

Hel's body had to be outside of Yggdrasil and protected from harm.

She smiled at Thialen suddenly. "Follow my lead."

"Of course."

Helena brought them to Thanos, standing in the killing fields of his training asteroid. He was roaring with anger at some of the "trainees" sprawled on the ground, declaring them unfit to be his children or carry his banner of war.

Striding forward, Helena approached him. "Thanos?" she asked, a hesitant expression contrasting the more confident steps. "Is this a bad time?"

The Titan turned, glower softening a fraction when he saw her. Then his entire body betrayed his shock when he saw Hel carried in Thialen's arms. "Hel."

"Something happened, Thanos," Helena told him, beckoning Thialen to come closer. "She's like this now. Empty. No skills, no thought. Something had overwhelmed her completely."

Thanos' jaw worked, eyes dark with understanding. "I see," he intoned, displeased.

"She can't rule Helheim like this, and to abdicate would kill her," Helena explained. "Since you love her, I thought you could care for her and I could rule Helheim in her stead."

He reached out to touch her cheek. Her eyes fluttered with a vague spark of life, and she looked at Thanos without recognition or interest.

"My darling Hel," Thanos intoned. His hand caressed her cheek tenderly.

"Maybe she should have a different name," Helena suggested. "The Queen of Helheim has always been Hel, so I should assume the title in her stead. The daughters are always Helena. I named the grandmother as Helaine. There's never been a different name used in Helheim, so you can keep her, care for her, and name her, too."

A greedy sort of delight shone in his eyes. "I think I know how this disaster happened, little one. I can even feel some of the essence of my gauntlet. She'd always liked it."

"Had she?" Helena asked with innocently wide eyes.

"Oh, yes. And I collected gems to gain her favor," Thanos admitted, eyes dropping from Helena back to Hel. "And here she is. It did its job, then."

"I'm glad you're pleased, my friend," Helena said with a warm smile, patting his arm. She nodded at Thialen toward Thanos, and he gingerly passed Hel into the Titan's arms. "I know she will be safe with you, Thanos," Helena told him, still smiling. "Love is the greatest gift in the entire universe, and I'm so happy for you that you have it."

Thanos smiled at Helena and Thialen took a half step back, half hidden behind her. That pleased the Titan greatly, and he brushed Hel's dark hair away from her face. "Keres," he murmured, "is the name of an ancient goddess of violent death. Her former self was violently destroyed, was it not?" he asked Helena, not looking up.

"Quite so," Helena agreed.

"You are Keres, my bride," he told the woman in his arms. His smile was possessive, edged with cruelty. "You escaped me for centuries, but now you're finally mine."

"I think we've overstayed our welcome," Helena murmured, bowing slightly. "I'll let you two get acquainted, and come back to visit another time, when you're settled."

"Of course," Thanos said, looking up. "You are a true friend, Helena. _Hel,"_ he corrected himself with a sly smile. "Keep your realm and your dead. They will be safe in your care. After all, I have my prize."

Helena nodded and rose from her bow, then took Thialen's arm. "Take care, Thanos."

Instead of going directly to Helheim, however, Helena appeared in the middle of the dining area of Avengers Tower. The majority of the heroes were there eating dinner and joking around, all smiles and dressed in comfortable clothing. Helena's eyes sought out Natasha right away, and she stepped forward, walking through the table. Still caught up in her grasp, Thialen wound up walking right through Clint, causing him to howl from the chill.

"She's gone. Hel is gone. I'm Hel now," Helena said, staring at Natasha intently, eyes large and mouth falling open. She shut it, then her lips flopped open and shut as she tried to say something else. "I don't understand," she wailed finally. When she was about to let go of Thialen, he grasped her arm in a panic, not sure if he would be stuck inside the table without her phasing talent; he might be an Eternal, but he had never figured out what his abilities were.

"Helena?" Natasha asked gently, rising and reaching out to her. "How about we go talk in a more private space?"

But she shook violently, as if crashing down from an adrenaline high. "Why am I sad? She wanted to kill me, she wanted to destroy everything, and I stopped her. I stopped Ragnarok. I saved the realms from ruin, and she's gone. Thanos has her, she'll be locked away forever and can't do any harm anymore. I should be happy. Why am I sad? I don't understand. _I don't understand._ Why do I feel so sad now?"

"Because she was still your mother," Natasha told her gently, grasping her hand and pulling her out of the table. Thialen gratefully followed and let go when he was sure he wouldn't solidify in the middle of a table or chair. "For better or worse, you wanted her to be happy. You wanted her to love you."

Loki stood and hesitantly reached out to touch Helena's arm. "You're grieving what never could be, and now for certain will never exist." His voice was gentle, far more understanding than most of the Avengers had ever heard it before.

"It hurts less eventually," James added, leaning back in his seat a little. "We all know a little something about loss here," he said when Helena turned questioning eyes in her direction. "You don't go saving the world if you're happy and got something to lose. But if you know what real pain is, and want to keep others from feeling it..."

Helena's teeth chattered and she hugged herself tightly. "I want it to stop. I don't want it to hurt anymore. I don't want to feel sad. I don't like this."

"There's all sorts of ways to not feel," Tony piped up, lifting up his wine glass. He put it down when Pepper kicked his leg and glared at him. "I don't recommend it." Tony shot Pepper a look that said _What? You didn't let me finish!_ and then turned back to Helena. "Not feeling only bites you in the ass later, when you don't want it to. Take your time. Say your goodbyes. Feel sad. It fades."

"Is this what it is to be human?" Helena asked Natasha, looking at her with a helpless expression.

"Yes."

"You're so fragile."

"Yes, we are," Natasha agreed softly.

Her lips trembled. "I did it, though. I knew if I didn't kill her that she would kill me."

"She's still alive," Natasha pointed out.

"Only in body. Her mind is gone. If she had any memory left, she would _hate_ being with Thanos. She would _hate_ knowing he could do whatever he wanted to. He even renamed her, and he looked like... like... _Happy._ Pleased. He got what he wanted, and he didn't have to burn the universe to get it. I just handed her over." Helena's breath hitched. "I'm the Hel now, and I don't know what else to do!"

Thialen pulled her into an embrace and stroked her hair gently when she burst into tears and Natasha didn't seem to know what to do. "I'll stay." She simply shook in his arms, and he held onto her tightly. "We'll have adventures, you said. More than just the realms we visited so far. There are more that are connected to your World Tree. And all the worlds in the galaxy we haven't seen. It would be a distraction for you. Something you can think about instead of the other Hel and the sadness."

"I'm sorry, who are you?" Tony asked, frowning at Thialen.

"The last of my people," Thialen replied gravely. "And the start of something new. Hel is my friend," he said, rubbing her back. Looking down at her incredulous expression, he gave her a wan smile. "You're Hel now. _You._ Helheim needs you now."

"I don't know how to start," she whispered, voice breaking.

Wan smile still on his face, he tapped her chest with his forefinger. "You need to take care of that," he reminded her.

"Oh. Oh, yes," Hel said, drawing herself up to her full height. "You're right. I'd forgotten." She looked at Natasha, appearing more like a frightened child. "I'm still sad."

Natasha patted her arm gently. "If you need to talk, you can come visit us."

That made her brighten. "Really?"

"You can count us as your friends, too," Natasha offered. "We can talk you through it."

Hel threw her arms around Natasha, hugging her tightly. "Thank you. I'll remember this."

Before anyone could say a thing, she and Thialen disappeared through a portal that opened beside them. The Avengers sat there, stunned, looking at each other. "Um... Did you just declare us all friends with Death?" Sam asked.

"I think I did," Natasha replied, staring at the spot Hel had been standing.

"You definitely did," James reminded her.

"Maybe this is a good thing," Loki mused as he sat back down in his seat, discomfited.

"Well, if we're friends with Death," Sam sighed, shaking his head. "Maybe that means she won't let any goons kill us. I count that as a good thing."

They all fell silent at that, contemplating what the future could bring.

***

Helheim was familiar and odd at once. The castle was present, but it no longer looked like an imposing fortress. The building had changed, so that it held courtyards and arches, turrets and crenellations, white stone and red tile with stained glass windows depicting gardens and flower arrangements commonly seen at funerals. The heavy gray mist was gone, and most of the empty fields were full of grass and wildflowers.

"This is... different," Thialen commented. He held out his arm in a gallant manner. "Let's go see what else has changed."

Hel took his arm, her touch light and hesitant. "Start in the manner you mean to go on with."

"Right," Thialen agreed, nodding. "And I'm here with you."

"Then before we explore, I have to take care of business."

She led him to the aviary, the location of which had shifted in her absence. The entire aviary was silent, eerily so, the murders of ravens staring at her with preternatural knowledge. All of them were perched on the silver trees in the aviary, watching her every move.

"I'm the new Hel," she murmured. None of them moved or acknowledged her words. "I've come to give a gift to the Runestaff. I'm correcting the mistakes my predecessor made."

The largest raven swept down from its perch, hovering in front of Hel. She held her arm out, and it landed on her wrist. Its beady eyes stared at her, and she was aware of its status in myth as a psychopomp, that Odin had two ravens of his own, that they were very comfortable with the dead. They would be unimpressed by any display of power she gave them.

"You don't all have to circle and keep watch for me," Hel continued. "I'm sure a great number of you would love to explore Helheim. It looks different now. Changed. Some could remain, and I leave it to you to decide amongst yourselves how to work the shifts so that the Runestaff may be protected from outsiders."

The raven uttered a single sharp caw, its gaze taking in Thialen.

"This is Thialen, my friend. An Eternal. I made him. Kind of. But he's my friend, and he's welcome in my realm. He helped me repair the other realms that Selene damaged in her hunger, and I suspect he will help me a lot in the future."

Flying to perch on her shoulder, the raven contemplated Thialen, and after a long moment made a soft huffing sound. It wasn't quite acceptance of him, but they wouldn't immediately try to kill him when they saw him in Helheim. That was good enough for now.

Taking off into the air above them, the raven uttered a series of sharp caws. All of the ravens except those on three silver trees flew off, phasing through the glass of the dome. One treeful of ravens started flying toward a stone wall, and it seemed to melt away from an invisible line, leaving behind a door leading to the glittering blood lake.

The lake was placid and tranquil, the shores made up of a fine silver sand. Hel stepped onto it, and then turned toward Thialen. "Hey. Help me a second?" With him helping her balance, she pulled off the laces to her Victorian heeled boots and then tossed them behind her onto the aviary floor. Next came her socks, and then she stood barefoot on the silver sand. She giggled, digging her toes into it, and grinned at Thialen. "I'm okay from here on out. I have to do this alone."

"Like the other realms," Thialen said with a nod.

"Exactly. I'll be back when I'm done."

He shrugged. "This is easier on me than the one on Muspelheim, at least."

Hel grinned at him. "Definitely. And maybe you can learn the language of the ravens."

Thialen lofted an eyebrow at her. "I think you have a little too much faith in me."

The largest raven landed on his shoulder and cawed gently. It tapped his temple lightly, not enough to hurt, but enough to nudge him away from the door.

"Take care of him, please," Hel asked the raven politely before heading out to the lake.

She followed the lakebed until the Runestaff was in front of her. Odd how she could see through the blood here, how it didn't fill her dead lungs or choke her. Maybe it was different because this wasn't a dead Runestaff.

"Hello," she said, staying a respectful distance from it. Only when it gave a pulse of recognition did she reach into her chest. "I have this. Mostly so that Thanos wouldn't have it, so he can't destroy as much of the galaxy as he wants to. He's dangerous enough as it is, and sooner or later my predecessor won't keep him very occupied." She licked her lips, nervous suddenly. "So I thought this would be safest with you. And it might help strengthen the realm for the influx of dead, because I'm sure he'll get angry and raze a few planets along the way."

The Infinity Gauntlet was still encased in its bubble of magic, so that she didn't accidentally absorb any of it. Just as with Hel's actual physical substance, she wanted none of it. The gauntlet was an item that carried too much power, and it would likely taint her over time.

After a moment, the Runestaff gave a pulse of acceptance. Hel pushed the bubble of magic forward, pressing the gauntlet against it. As the gauntlet touched the crystal Runestaff, it began to glow bright enough that Hel could see its light even with her eyes squeezed shut and her head turned away.

When it was dark again, the bubble was gone, the gauntlet was gone, and the Runestaff seemed to purr like a content cat. Smiling faintly, Hel even pet it.

"I think we'll work well together."

A pulse of agreement, and then she was standing in the aviary in the blink of an eye.

"That didn't take very long," Thialen commented as she tried to get her bearings.

"No, I guess not," Hel replied, not sure what else to do. She sat on the floor and put on her socks and boots, then changed the long dress for a pair of denim jeans like Natasha Romanoff had been wearing and a black shimmering shirt that was shot with red threads. "This is better for walking in," she declared. Looking down, she shrugged. "Keeping the boots and socks, though."

Thialen snickered and shook his head. "You look mortal, not like death personified."

Hel grinned. "Let's go meet the gargoyles," she said brightly. "Then the village, the fields, the canyon, the mountains, the Sea of Forgotten Souls..." She tilted her head to the side. "My predecessor kept all the seers in a spider's web above us. It's dissolving now. They're free to walk about wherever they like."

"This is important why?"

She laughed. "I don't know. Maybe it isn't at all. But things are going to be different now. I'm different from her, from all the other Hels that had ever been."

The raven on Thialen's shoulder cawed in agreement, and then flew to circle the aviary, its eyes alert at all times.

"Thank you," she told it sincerely. She grasped Thialen's hand and led him from the aviary through the palace. Everything was white marble veined in silver and gold, with large windows to see outside. The stained glass windows were casting colored patterns across the floor, and Hel skipped in delight through the colors.

Everything was brand new in Helheim. She could still feel the ache and disappointment that it had come to this, but she also couldn't wait to meet her kingdom.

Winter was over, spring had come. Time to begin again.

The End.


End file.
